Book Shop Chats:
Welcome to Book Shop Chats, your go to podcast for indie authors and learning insight into what it takes to write a book (HINT: You can do it too!!)
Join authors as they share their personal journeys, successes, and challenges, providing you with unique insights into the writing process. The discussions explore into various aspects of storytelling, from character development to plot structuring, ensuring you have a well-rounded understanding of the craft.
Whether you're just starting out or have published multiple works, this podcast is your companion in the pursuit of storytelling excellence. Tune in, gather inspiration, and let your passion for writing flourish alongside a community that celebrates the art of the written word.
Book Shop Chats:
Episode FORTY-TWO: Exploring the Paranormal World of Alex McKenna with Author Vicki Bush
Vicki Ann Bush shares insights into her writing journey and the re-release of her Alex McKenna series, exploring themes of identity and creativity. We discuss her writing process, screenwriting experiences, and offer advice for aspiring writers, emphasizing the importance of finding one's unique voice.
• Discussion on the Alex McKenna series and its themes
• Experiences navigating the continuity of characters in a series
• Importance of structure and time management for busy writers
• Transition to screenwriting and its impact on novel writing
• Advice for aspiring authors to explore their inspirations
• Community engagement and resurgence of interest in reading
About the author:
Originally from New York, Vicki-Ann currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. Writing Young Adult paranormal, she finds inspiration from events that have been in her life for as long as she can remember. Inheriting the sensitivity to the supernatural from her family, they continue to be an endless source of vision.
Released in September 2023 by Creative James Media, the second edition of Alex McKenna & The Geranium Deaths. The first book in the YA, Paranormal, LGBTQ series, that features a seventeen- year-old, transgender boy with paranormal abilities.
Alex McKenna & The Academy of Souls, October 2024.
Alex McKenna & A Winter’s Night, coming February 2025.
Alex McKenna & Death Is Not The Beginning, coming October2025.
In 2020 the first edition of Alex McKenna & The Geranium Deaths, received the Gold Medal in the Readers Favorite Book Awards for Young Adult, Paranormal.
In addition, Vicki-Ann is honored to have recently won Best American Short Script with the IMDB Qualifying Festival, 8 & HalFilm Awards, and Special Jury Award for Short Film from the Los Angeles Film Awards for her short screenplay, Alex & Margaret’s Beginning, inspired by her Alex McKenna Series.
In 2022 Vicki-Ann signed a six book publishing deal with CJM Publishing, which includes the YA Paranormal Romance, The Darkest Light, and the Sci-Fi, Liminal Space. Both available @Amazon and other online shops.
Author Website http://www.vickiannbush.com
Social Media: https://vickiannbush.carrd.co/
About Victoria:
Hey there, I’m Victoria! As a writer and developmental editor, I specialize in helping busy writers bring their publishing dreams to life without the overwhelm. Editing doesn’t have to feel like pulling teeth—it's the magic that transforms your story from “meh” to masterpiece!
Here’s how I can help:
📖 FREE Manuscript Prep Workbook: Take the stress out of editing with simple steps to organize your revisions.
Grab it HERE
📝 Developmental Editing: Get expert feedback that elevates your manuscript, strengthens your story, and polishes your characters.
✍️ 1:1 monthly support Writer's Haven: Revitalize your creativity, map out your novel, and unleash your authentic voice.
Your story deserves to shine, and I’m here to make it happen. Let’s turn your writing dreams into a reality!
📱 IG: @editsbyvictoria
🌐 Website: https://victoriajaneeditorial.myflodesk.com/links
Welcome to Bookshop Chats. I am your host, victoria Hopkins. Bookshop Chats is the perfect podcast for authors, readers and writers alike. In these episodes, we chat with a variety of authors from all kinds of genres and help demystify and show you that writing a book is well, not necessarily easy doable. So grab a coffee and get ready to add a whole bunch more books to your TBR and let's dive in. Oh hey, it's Victoria, your host of Bookshop Chats.
Speaker 1:Before we dive into today's episode, I'm going to share a little bit about what's going on in my world. So currently, my books are open for developmental editing. If that is your jam, if you need a book edited, come reach out to me. Free samples for the first 1,000, 1,500 words, just to make sure that we jive with each other, because that is a very, very important thing. When you are looking for a developmental editor, you want to make sure that you guys jive with each other, because that is a very, very important thing. When you are looking for a developmental editor, you want to make sure that you guys jive, that the feedback is given is going to be what it is that you are indeed looking for, and if you are a busy writer like me, we need all the help we can get when it comes to planning. And if you are maybe a little bit more of a pantster, let me show you the power of having some kind of outline. So this is kind of the premise of the five minute planner that I put together for busy writers. So in there you will find a huge character sketch to really like dive into your characters and also a really simple planner outline that you can map out what you need to write each day. So this is a really great way to help kind of get clear of what direction you need to go, whether it's a scene or whether it's a chapter, and you can even utilize this throughout your whole book. It's really simple to use.
Speaker 1:I put it together with the intention of it being like a five to 10 minute kind of thing that you do maybe before you write, just so that you are maximizing the time that you have to write. Especially if you are low on time like me, we need all the help we can get. And finally, I also put together the Writer's Haven is a bite-sized audio training for the busy writer. So I put these little bite-sized audio clips together with the intention of you being able to listen to them on demand, as you need to, and they're really great for helping with things like, maybe, writer's block or you're feeling a little bit stuck on how to manage your busy life and fit writing into it. I've also added some meditations to help really support your inner artist and really just tap back into your creative spirit, and it is all available for you. I'll link it in the show notes if that is something that is your jam. Like I said, it is a super low cost $9 to hop in and the intention is I'll periodically add in a couple audios here and there throughout the year and it's kind of an ever evolving thing. So once you grab it, that's it, it's yours and you get access to any bonus things that I add in.
Speaker 1:Okay, friends? Well, I think it is about time that we dive back into today's episode. So grab a cozy beverage and let's add some more books to your TBR. Welcome back to Bookshop Chats. In today's episode, I am chatting with Vicki and Bush. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I'm happy to be here. This is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm super excited to chat about you and you've been writing for a long time, but we're going to be chatting about a couple new books that are well new old books that are coming, that are getting re released, and I'd love for you to just like dive right in and share all about, because you showed me the cover and I'm already like I need to know all of the details.
Speaker 2:Um okay, so the latest series is the Alex McKenna series, and Alex McKenna is a 17 year old transgender boy with um psychic abilities. He's very gifted. He comes from a family of italian witches and it's set in modern day, because sometimes people hear that and they think, oh, is this taking place like in the 1600s? No, no, no, it's modern day.
Speaker 2:It's just that the family lineage is a long line of italian witches, and the focus of the books and of alex is is on the paranormal and not on the transgender, and the reason for that is it was written for somebody who's very dear to me, who holds my heart, and I wanted them to be able to have something that they could pick up and relate to. But I don't need to tell them about their journey because they're the ones going through it and I am certainly not qualified to talk about their journey. I mean, like, to an extent, I can kind of brush over the idea, you know. So it's kind of sprinkled in so that the reader has, you know, some knowledge that Alex is transgender. There has, you know, some knowledge that Alex is transgender, but beyond that, it's just written as if it was just any other paranormal book with teens in it, you know.
Speaker 2:And so the first book, alex McKenna and the Geranium Deaths, came out originally in 2019. And I was with a publisher at the time who put the book out. And then we have the second book release and then the third and the fourth, and I made a publisher change a couple years ago and I was very fortunate because my new publisher, creative James Media, wanted to pick up the Alex McKenna series. So what's happening now is the books are being re-released as a second edition. They have different covers. There's a few little goodies that's inside each book that wasn't in the first release of the books and it's kind of exciting. You know it's been like release of the books and it's kind of exciting. You know, um, it's been like, um, like embracing the old but the excitement of the new, you know, with the same series.
Speaker 2:So the book, the first book, alex mckinnon, the geranium death deaths, came out last year and, um, we got the second book released this past october and then we'll see the third book, which is A Winter's Night. That comes out in the beginning of 2025. And then the final book will come out in late fall and that is Death is Not the Beginning. So, yeah, that I think is the darkest book out of all four, because it kind of touches with a subject that I don't want to go into great detail right now, but that I think is kind of like I don't want to say it's not, let's just say it's darker let's just say it's darker.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'd love to hear a little bit about like the process of writing. I always find it fascinating for people that write like actual like series that are meant to kind of like follow each other like a lot of. I've seen, you know, the spinoffs where it's like standalone, same characters but you can read it and it makes sense. But how, how to have you found that experience writing like an actual like series that needs to be cohesive and kind of make sense?
Speaker 2:Now the books are standalones, so that's the one we call. I call it cases. Once that Alex is working on, because he sees and he talks to the dead, right, that always leads to murder, mayhem. You know something's going on. Once that case is done, that that is over. However, the constant is alex, his girlfriend margaret and his family.
Speaker 2:So when I was writing by, when I got to the second book, know, you have to make sure that the continuity of what you wrote before in regards to the characters is carried over, right, right, you have an assistant storyline and I have a extremely bad memory. It's really bad. Um, so you, my desk literally looks like post-its and pieces of paper all over the place, and then inside the drawers I have cheat sheets and stuff in there and I'm constantly writing notes to make sure that you know, I remember that this. I mean, I went through this one thing I was writing I don't know what I was thinking, but I was writing the second book and for some reason I changed the color of Alex's eyes, I don't know, I don't know why, and I'm getting like three quarters through the book and I happen to look at a note that I was looking for something else and it had his eye color and I went oh man, what did I do? So then I had to go back and change everything. You know it was like oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So my process usually begins early morning. That is my best time to be the most clear and the most creative. Usually I'll start early in the morning and I'll wind up maybe two o'clock in the afternoon, sometimes three. Only occasionally will you see me like writing something at night or on the weekend, because I usually try not to write on the weekend. I save that for family time, you know to be able to do things with the family.
Speaker 2:But so my process would be to sit down and I usually read the last couple of paragraphs that I wrote, like the day prior, you know, to kind of refresh myself and bring me back into it, and then from there that's when I go and continue that journey.
Speaker 1:That's so fascinating to me. I love hearing about how other people write their books and just how it's why it all comes together in the different ways that people do it. But it's really neat to see, like, what works for one person and I think that's really an important thing for people to remember is that you can take all the advice that people give you, but at the end of the day, you have to find a writing process that works in your life and also understanding your season of life too, right, so recognizing what you can actually do versus what you want to do, because sometimes those are different well, and also, see, I write YA.
Speaker 2:I only have um one adult book, you know, like an adult, meaning they're in their 20s, yeah.
Speaker 2:But so when you're writing YA, there's certain things you know you got to be cautious of too you know that you can't go into too much detail, yes, um, but you know what really gets me, though, and and this fascinates me people write authors who write out of uh, they don't write in chapter to chapter. They might write chapter one and then chapter two isn't inspiring them, so now they're on chapter four, or you know. They write out a sequence and I'm like how do you do that? I have a hard enough time keeping track with my post-it notes everywhere. You know I would be a blithering idiot if I wrote out of I'd be like I don't know what I'm writing. It would be like not readable.
Speaker 2:I love that, yeah, yeah, and it fascinates me and I am like god, you guys are good, because I can't do that it's so, it's so interesting.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely a little bit more of the out of order writer, um, though I have been, uh, utilizing Scrivenger, um, which I do love because I can like each chapter, I can kind of separate. So it's not like I'm writing in the middle of a google doc and it's getting lost and it just it kind of I can like each chapter, I can kind of separate, so it's not like I'm writing in the middle of a Google doc and it's getting lost and it just it kind of I can still bounce to like somewhat cohesive or at least have point forms for the chapters, because otherwise, like you said, I don't know what's happening. Though I am starting to embrace the planning a little bit more than the the pants thing.
Speaker 1:It's just just something, because I find if I don't have a plan, um, I just stare at the page and nothing happens. So there needs to be something, um just to like spark that creativity. Uh, because it's not fun when you're just staring at like the page for an hour and you're like what?
Speaker 2:this is not happening or you're writing and then you're erasing, and then you're writing, and then you're erasing and then you're writing and then you're erasing.
Speaker 2:The funny thing is, though, for me and this was most of the past, you know, 12 years or so I got the title first, so I might be sitting there and this title comes to me, and then that's where the story starts, with that title, you know, and that's what inspires me. But, like you were saying, I didn't have anything written down and I would just go and I'm learning now I shouldn't say learning, I guess I'm adapting. Now that that's if I at least have a brief outline of a paragraph, or two paragraphs, or three paragraphs. I'm not the type to do the whole thing. I have friends who are authors who pretty much outline all of the chapters and then all they have to do is fill it in. That's not me. Me it doesn't work well that way, but I do have that few paragraphs that I can, because I want to be able to refer back to that. Sometimes you know, like where did my ideas start?
Speaker 2:Because sometimes you get lost you know, Not to mention when the characters just take you on another road that you didn't plan on going. But it's nice to have some kind of reference so that you can look back at that and go oh, that's what I wanted to do, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like that's such a great way of doing it. It just kind of gives a little bit of structure to the chaos, but then you still have that space to kind of let the story unfold, especially for the first draft. I feel like it to kind of let the story unfold, especially for the first draft, I feel like it just kind of sometimes goes where it's going to go and you're like, okay, I guess this is happening. I didn't realize that, and then we can kind of rein it in a little bit and make sure that it, like, is cohesive as we go through the editing process.
Speaker 2:The thing I hate the most is editing.
Speaker 1:That's so. It's so funny. I, I definitely. I do love that part of just like the words are on the paper and then I can play with it more. Staring at a blank screen is always a little bit daunting, um, when you're like I have to get the words out. Oh dear, this is scary, uh, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about, like where, like you've been writing for 12 years, uh, at least, uh, but like where did this pull to to right start?
Speaker 2:um, and you know it's funny as we're talking and I told you I my first published story, which was a children's book, was in 2008, so I'm like that's 16 that's six, yeah, you know what it is.
Speaker 2:It's 12 that I've been doing YA because I started off with two children's books and, um, I had the publisher I had at the time for those books they're the ones that introduced me to YA and they said you know, we think you might really like doing this. And I had had a nice rapport with the editor and she said I think you should try this, you know, and I did. I wrote a series of novellas and I was hooked.
Speaker 2:I just loved it, but my writing goes back to when I was about 13 and I'm from New York and they were having it like a city-wide contest between all the schools and you had to write a story, you had to construct the book, so the binding make the cover. Oh, and my dad, who could draw? I can't draw, I can't draw to save my life, I can't draw a stick figure. Um, actually did a couple little drawings for me on the back of the book and it came at a time where I was graduating eighth grade and we were moving from New York to California. So even though I got to finish the school year out, I never really got to complete the book the way I wanted to. But I still have it because after I moved, a friend of mine, the school approached her and I was able to get it back. They sent it back to me, so that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2:So I still have Joe Brady, master detective. I love it, you know. And so that's how my writing started and that just just got me like, from that time on I just loved it. I mean, I always wrote like little poetry things. You know, like teen girl, what are you gonna do? Right, you write little things, um, but that hooked me for stories, yeah.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's so cool time goes on.
Speaker 2:I wrote, put it in a box. Then I got married, then I had kids. It wasn't until my kids were pretty well grown that they kept saying to me mom, why don't you just send some stuff in? Just send it in. So they gave me that nudge.
Speaker 1:I love that. I think that's so cool and I feel like sometimes we can kind of get hung up on this idea that it's too late or we should have been writing more when we were younger, or whatever story it is, and I think that you know, the time is the time that it's meant to come out and life experience really is an important thing and, like you, you have the ability to tell it in a much richer way. I think sometimes when, when we start things later in life and that's what I'm feeling as I'm getting close to 40 and like, like this is just the beginning, like this is exciting, oh, wait, wait.
Speaker 2:Did you say that you're getting close to 40 and that's later in life? Well, like later, well later than it was.
Speaker 1:I know it's this perspective right, like everyone says. Know it's this perspective, right like everyone says. But when I'm you know I'll be. I'll be looking at the young kids when I'm older and be like I can't believe. You say 40 is old.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's old, I just think it's like it's more fun than the 20 know and um, my kids are your age, so but but I I know that the way I write now and the things that I put into the stories, I was not the same person 25 years ago 20 years ago you know, and I did go through that briefly I was.
Speaker 2:I was in my early fifties and I remember saying to a really good friend of mine, in fact my best friend. We've been best friends for over 50 years. I love that. Yeah, she's still in New York, but we're to, you know, we're in contact. But, um, I said that to her. I said, yeah, I wish I would have just started a little earlier so I had more time to grow it. You know, to grow what I'm doing. And she said to me she goes, but you weren't the you you are now back then, yeah, you're putting that into your books and I was like, oh, that's brilliant, you know right and it just really it made me feel better, especially now with I don't know if we talked about it, but um, about the short film oh no
Speaker 2:that's okay, yes, please tell me more um a couple of years, oh my god, a couple of years ago, um, I have, uh, I had people say to me you know, we really want to see this, the geranium dust. We really want to see this in a film. We really want to see this in a film. We really want to see this in a film. And I'm like you know, I don't. Good luck.
Speaker 2:You know, I finally got coaxed into writing a screenplay, but I was advised by my mentor, who he used to write for TV back in the seventies and eighties. He's a college professor since retired, but he said to me start with a short film. Start with a short film, because it's easier to write um 20 pages than it is to write 100. Yeah, you know. So, um, I went ahead and people have asked me before because the books do not delve too deeply into the transgender with Alex. It does show a little bit how him and Margaret come together as boyfriend and girlfriend, but I never touch on the subject. How did Alex reveal to Margaret that he was transgender? So in talking with my mentor, he said that's it, that's what you need to do.
Speaker 2:So the short film basically is about. It's a prequel and it tells the story of how Alex might have told Margaret this way, right, and it really doesn't have much paranormal in it. It does have a character, jacob, who's a little boy who's kind of attached to Alex's family. A little six-year-old boy he's in it. So that little bit of paranormal is there.
Speaker 2:But so what happened was I wrote the script, a small production company picked it up, made the film and then started putting the film into festivals and were actually an award-winning short film. Several award-winning short film were actually an award-winning short film, several award-winning short film. And I I now have, um, a best producer to my name, which was totally a fluke. I don't know what I was doing. And they also convinced me because they wanted an extra scene after it started to film. They wanted an extra scene with his mom and I was like, okay, but if I write this, now we got to, you got to be looking for, you know, an actor to play mom. And they're like, oh, no, we already have one. And I'm like, oh, okay, great, so I get the scene done, right, and I handed in and I said, okay, you've got this, now you have to. And they're like no, we have her, like we said. And I go, well, okay, who? And they point to me and I went oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. A little bit to convince me. It took him a little while but eventually, eventually, I thought you, I agreed because of the fact that you know I didn't want to hurt the film If it were a small company. We had a budget, you know, and I was like all right, so I have my little I don't know how many seconds I'm playing mom on screen, so now I can add actress to my name that one little bit.
Speaker 2:But anyway, I'm very proud of the short film. It is currently available. Right now it's streaming on youtube stash tv, um, what's the other one? There's a couple of other awesome tv so people can look up alex um, alex mckenna, alex and margaret's beginning and they can view the short film. But it was such a different experience, a different way of writing. That's what I'm leaning into right now. When we write and you know as, yes, authors, novels we're able to show in our writing what the what the person's thinking you know, what that?
Speaker 2:what the emotions are? You know as far as little things. And when I was writing the screenplay, the first draft read more like a novel. And when I handed it to my mentor to to review it, he was like no, no, they, the audience has no idea what's going on in the character's head. And he, he said to me you have to see just what's in front of you, you know, and he was kind of narrowing the vision on, you know, his showing me, and so I had to rewrite it, and then I rewrote it again, and then I rewrote it again, you know. But it was a huge learning experience, a huge learning curve.
Speaker 1:I imagine. So it's so interesting, interesting. I'm very proud of it, that's awesome, that's so cool. I think that's like the ultimate dreams. I feel like it would to have like a novel or part of your novel like created into like an actual, like like actual movie, um, or like in short film, just to like bring it to life in a different way. Because, like you said it is, I imagine it would be so different to write like that, um, especially when we're like watching those, those tv shows, movies or whatever, like we, we get to see the emotion from the actors but, like like you said, we, we don't know what they're thinking or things like that, unless it's told to us or like shown in a very obvious kind of way, versus when you're writing a novel, you get that insider perspective to see the characters and both are really cool, like they both hit something, so it's really neat to see it come to life like that.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see. We'll see, Because I did, I did, I was pushed again and so I did write a feature. It's an adaptation of the geranium death and it's now making the festival circuit. So we do have one win so far, and then a semi-finalist and a quarter finalist and we'll see what happens, but so there's a feature out there, feature length script too.
Speaker 1:Amazing. That's still freaking cool, so I would say celebrate the heck out of that yeah, as cool as it is, though, I'm a novel writer someone said you're gonna write more and I'm going no, no. I feel like that probably would have challenged you and made you like a better novel writer in some ways of just like realizing, like the differences and what's important in novels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely has influenced me. I can say that, see, I like dialogue. That is the thing I love to do the most. In fact, I'm the one where you have to pull a little bit more description out of me. You know, and that's when I go through my edits, that's what you'll see more of. Is like all these notes about you know, okay, how, what are they feeling here? And what you know, and because I love dialogue, when I a movie, that's what I'm paying attention to more than anything else is the dialogue. And that part of writing a script I loved, because obviously that's what you're doing, you know a good portion of the piece, right, and that I think, in turn, helped me even more so with my novels.
Speaker 1:Know, just, kind of like like paying more attention to that definitely, and I feel like strong dialogue is really really important in um, obviously both uh novels and like tv screenplays, that kind of thing, uh, because that's really a great way of showing the characters and who they are and how they like navigate the world versus some of the other like more descriptive stuff. You know it just it. It makes it.
Speaker 2:You get to know them in a different way when you hear them speak, I think yeah, I agree, you know what I write, the way I like to read what I need, want to see description, but I don't want to see. I don't want to see two or three pages of this description. You know what I mean. I want to be able to use my imagination, give me some of it and then let me formulate it in my brain as I'm reading. You know, and that's what I like to do, so I, I guess it makes sense, that's how I write.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. I love that. That's amazing. Well, I'd love to hear what would be some advice that you would have for somebody who is just starting out their writing journey and they like they want to write a book but they're like, can I do it? I would love to hear what maybe helped you kind of get to that space.
Speaker 2:You know, usually I say, you know, just sit down, think of your you know, think of what it is you want to. You want to say you know, and just start putting some words down. But you know, I've said that before, I just really love his work, um, and I think if you could sit down with your favorite book, you know, and figure out what is it about this author, what is it about these, these stories, or this story that really grabs you, right, what kind of style? I think it would help, starting out, because, without even realizing, I did that, you know, like I took the elements of what I liked and those tools and incorporated it into my own way, you know, because you're gonna, you're gonna adapt it to you. Yeah, but I think that would help because I unconsciously did it for myself, I think that's such, that's such a great thing.
Speaker 1:Like learning how to read from like this perspective of a writer has been really cool to see, yeah, what, what somebody is doing and why they're doing it, and like what you really loved or what you're like. I don't like that part, but I could see why they did it. So like that's a really great piece of the puzzle. Just to because I definitely feel like, especially if you're like a visual learner, I think it can be helpful to see, like the structure of the novel on the page and that's a really helpful thing of just like, oh, that's how they did the dialogue, that's how they weaved in, like you know, some showing and then this is how they told us what was going on, and stuff like that. So that, yeah, that's a really solid piece of advice. Oh, amazing, awesome. Well, finally, I would love for you to share how people can get in touch with you and get their hands on your books.
Speaker 2:Okay, so my website, which is vickiannbushcom, facebook, instagram Threads, blue Sky, tiktok. I'm there and it's pretty much all the same. It's pretty much all. Vicki Ann Bush. You know, if you just plug that in, you'll find me. And then Amazon, barnes, noble, any online places you know, streaming, kobo, you know things like that. Yeah, I'm there. Apple Books, and then there are a few Barnes and Noble, but this is, this is back in Las Vegas that have my books in there, actually, like there, you know where you wouldn't have to go in and order.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, that's amazing, awesome. Well, everything will be linked to the show notes so it'll be super easy for people to find you and connect with you and find your books and I feel like young adult books, like they're they're popping right now, like the kids are reading so much, which is amazing to see and it's so cool that, like they're, they're I don't know, it feels like they're rediscovering books again.
Speaker 2:I love it did you see that thing where barnes and noble are gonna what was it? 600 more stores now we thought that they were. You know they were having issues. I hope I got that right. It's either 300 or 60. Anyway, the point being is they're on the rise again and you have to. I mean, it has to be people are reading again, which is really good, you know which is really good, you know. I'm hoping I can do that here in Salem Oregon now. Establish that local um engagement. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And rapport, we'll see yeah, I feel like it. People love that and I think it's always cool when you're like oh, this author like lives in my town and I can like connect with them and stuff like that. I always find that really neat to be like oh, I read your book and you're like at the coffee shop, that's so cool.
Speaker 2:I know it's fun, it is and it's funny. I was in a market one day and all of a sudden like I could feel I was at the self-checkout and I could feel like you know, when you feel people close to you and I turn around and they're like you came to our school and you're the author and they were all excited and I'm like, oh my God.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome. I love it. I think that, yeah, kids are like so good at like like being like excited about like things like that there's so much fun. I love it. Um, what was? It was super lovely chatting with you and I learned a lot, and I'm yeah, I always love connecting with other authors and hearing about their journeys.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. This was so much fun and I enjoyed being able to relax and have this kind of engagement after the three weeks of hectic moving.
Speaker 1:Yes, chill, that's. That's what we're embracing Slow and steady vibes.
